Prior to the political conversation that did not in any way make me feel like a Kennedy I ventured into town and ate at this completely unexpected restaurant called Cerulean. I've never been to RI, but I kind of felt it'd look like this:

I had sushi:

Scallops and delicious local swine:

And some overly salty lamb sausage that was tempered somewhat by the cantaloupe balls that gave the impression of eggs and sausage:

The meal was somewhat soured by the douchebag pharmaceutical sales rep who sat a couple seats away at the bar who moved his wedding ring from his left to right hand and then started hitting on anything that jiggled and a few things that didn't. If you don't want to be married, just don't get married.....

My own personal conclusion is that if we want to change the world we just need to focus on what we love and do what we do best. In the process the world will become a happier, safer, more peaceful place because of all the great heirloom tomatoes, interesting needlepoint, metalwork, BBQ'd sausages or paintings that get created because of it. NPR and Fox News just make people think they're involved and changing the world, but nothing ever comes of it except feelings of gloom and doom, anxiety and stress.

Doing what we love, swinging on swings, riding motorbikes and cuddling the people we adore has a much more positive effect on the net-happiness of the world than agonizing over whatever it is that they talk about on TV or the radio. Just a thought....

I've been lurking, in awe of the guy on the Ducati who just goes but this resonates with me in a way that is rare and true. Write a book and share your love of what you're doing with a wider audience that needs to be reminded of these things. You do have the gift.

I'm heading to the Duc dealer tomorrow and will be catching up soon....like the scene in Forrest Gump when he's jogging and slowly builds a crowd, but we'll all be on Ducati's wearing t-shirts that say "Anti-hero Happens".

I'm wondering; as you traveled across the breadbasket of our country did you notice the evidence of drought, as has been reported by our excessively hand-wringing Fourth Estate. Sure doesn't look like it's a problem in Indy.

I'm wondering; as you traveled across the breadbasket of our country did you notice the evidence of drought, as has been reported by our excessively hand-wringing Fourth Estate. Sure doesn't look like it's a problem in Indy.

It's bad in most of Indiana, I can post pictures if Anti didn't get any.

Hmmm....roles and role-playing and how much do we all do this? Are we just the sum of all the roles we play? My guess is that things like what bike you ride place you in a community, and like all communities, each one has societal norms. That may be why you're unlikely to see HD guys dressed in race leathers and full face helmets, or why so many adventure riders are either on BMWs or KTMs: because "that's how everyone does it." The norms of adventure riding say you need a certain dual sport bike although there are plenty of people who have gone rtw on all kinds of bikes. That's one of the reasons I am so happy to see this ride report....for once here's someone going on a long ride on a sportbike...my favorite kind of bike. We say "get the bike you really want" and that also determines to a degree how you're going to ride, and who with. No one buys a Sportster so they can run with a bunch of canyon carvers, eh? And look at how many people are amazed that you're doing a tour on a Duc. I am wondering though how much our appreciation for a particular bike is about the bike itself, or about the role we will play when we have the bike. Can these be separated? I'm not sure. But back to roles....we grow up being admonished to act. "Act your age!" "Act like a salesman, engineer, cop, etc." "Act nice." We grow up being told to act, to put on various roles. When we act the role, do we become the role? Does the experience change us? Do we incorporate the roles into our selfhood? I think we can shift into some roles as the need arises. Then I guess the core person is what remains when not in any roles. Sometimes I think that in the times we live in we are asked to don so many roles so often that we lost touch with that core of ourselves, and that core is what people tend to experience when they chuck all the other roles and just ride. And ride. And ride. Then they really only have one role: the traveler, and maybe when they can interact with the world this way it can just be with themselves, without all the other role layers society asks us to wear. Wow, this has gone off someplace I didn't foresee. Apologies to all if the above is boring or stupidly obvious....my only excuse was that the ride report is so good it just made me sit down and ponder for awhile.

Blader, that's exactly the kind of response I was hoping for. We all play the roles and get so caught up in what we're supposed to be doing that we rarely question what we should be doing. We lose particles of ourselves when we conform to what we estimate to be expected of us. And over time those particles add up. Pondering, thinking, questioning, validating and sometimes rejecting those norms is what's needed for progress. Hell, someone at sometime survived an accident that ripped the sleeve of his jacket off and, after careful examination said, 'fuck it--I don't need sleeves,' cut the other one off with his Buck knife, picked his bike up and rode off.